


Making it work

by RyanWithSuperPowers



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (more like some of the time, (most of the time), Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Parents, College, College Roommates, College dorms, Miscommunication, Morality | Patton Sanders-centric, More tags to be added, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Roommates, first work in this fandom, i love them all too much to focus on just one, im sorry), please don’t kick me out for not knowing things, sharing a dorm, tags might spoil the plot eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-10-04 12:00:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20470682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RyanWithSuperPowers/pseuds/RyanWithSuperPowers
Summary: Logan is a college sophomore who just wants to study hard and get good grades. Also find out why his ex-roommate has abandoned him to the imbeciles he’s being forced to room with.Roman is a college sophomore who always gets anything he wants: support from his parents in acting, lead roles in his high school plays, money from his parents for college, and really anything else he’s ever wanted. He just doesn’t know how to tell his parents that he doesn’t want them to provide everything for him, for example, the apartment his mother insisted on paying for after finding out he shared a dorm freshman year,Virgil is a college freshman who works part-time to pay his tuition when he’s not in class, and he’s just glad he only ends up having one and a half roommates instead of the three he was told he’d have when he signed up to live in the dorms for students who need financial help. One guy and his kid are nothing compared to the idiots his friend from the library has to deal with.Patton is a single father going back to college as a freshman. His son, Thomas, lives with him in their dorm, along with another student. Patton just wants to take care of his son while also taking care of himself.





	1. New Room pt/1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s a new school year, and both Logan’s and Roman are moving in for their sophomore year.
> 
> -really bad description but ok-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty short for my standards but I’m trying to learn not to care as much, if I tried to stretch it out any longer it would be boring and you would just get descriptions of the desk lady’s nails, and the fake cheery voice of the pizza girl. Also I don’t want to research IKEA furniture, so I’m going to call them generic things like “the table” and “the bed”.

The city bus was not one of Logan’s preferred methods of transportation, but unfortunately, his options were limited. In theory, he could drive, as he did have his license, but overall purchasing a car was not a priority for him at the moment. Firstly it would put a significant damper on his finances, and secondly the vehicle would be largely unused. Logan would be able to transport himself to and from campus without having to interact with strangers in close contact, but for the weeks on end that he didn’t leave campus the car would sit uselessly in a parking space that Logan would have to pay for. Logan had understood this when he first started his college education, and he had lasted at least his freshman year without feeling the need to purchase a vehicle, so he decided to stick with public transportation when it was necessary.

That being said, he was not a fan of riding the bus. 

“I’m here to pick up my keys,” he informed the woman sitting at her desk in front of him, and she glanced at him for a moment before placing her hands on the keyboard.

“Name?”

“Logan Berry.”

The keys on her keyboard clacked loudly, and Logan winced. Clearly the equipment was out of date, highly inefficient. She should request an upgrade in her work materials, though judging by the filing cabinets behind her, which she stood to retrieve his key and student ID from, modern technology might not be the top priority of the school’s directors.

“You’re in room 562 in the West Commons building, here’s your key and your school ID. Don’t lose them, you only get one replacement before we charge you for new ones.” She held out the card and key to Logan, and he took them from her while mentally mapping out where the West Commons building would be compared to his classes. Logan’s eyebrows furrowed, though, as he brought the key closer to his face. 

“Excuse me,” Logan turned to the woman to find her looking at him with disinterest. “But this key says ‘number three’ on it. There should only be two copies.” The woman shook her head, leaning forward in her chair to sit up straighter.

“You’re a sophomore, aren’t you?” He nodded his affirmation. “Yeah, there are four keys to your room. The freshman dorms are two per room, but the rest have four kids each.”

Logan slipped his new ID into his pocket, berating himself for not knowing such easily accessible information. If he had merely researched the different dorm buildings on the college website, he would not have needed to ask that question.

“I see. Will I be living with my previous roommate and two other students, or-“ the door opening and a tall student walked in, interrupting him mid-question.

“It depends on if you requested each other on your forms.” The woman explained before turning to the new entrant. 

Logan left quickly, as so to stop bothering the woman and allow her to do her job. 

He was not worried in the slightest over his rooming situation, though he had been a bit concerned when he realized there would be two new people involved. It had taken a while for him to warm up to his last roommate, who would likely be his roommate again this year. The two had never exchanged contact information, likely due to the fact that they saw each other every day and had never needed to contact one another when they couldn’t just walk to where the other was on campus.

Logan had, in fact, written his name down as a preferred dorm-mate, and left the other two spaces blank, thinking them backups. He had no doubt that Roman had requested him as well.

\- - - - - - - - - 

Roman scrolled through his phone while lying sideways on his new bed. There were no sheets on the mattress yet, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was much better than his mattress from last year, and Roman almost shuddered at the thought. 

The mattresses supplied by the school had been worse than sleeping on the ground, which was what Roman ended up doing on his first night staying in the dorm. The next day, Roman had gone out and bought actual usable mattresses for him and Logan both, because no one should be subjected to that. He hadn’t even liked Logan at the time.

Oh, Logan, right. Roman stared at his phone, scrolling again through his contacts and counting the people he couldn’t call “just because” anymore. All of his old high school friends had new college friends now, and Roman had... Logan. Who he didn’t even actually have, because they were friends for less than a year before they parted ways, and Roman had been an idiot and forgotten to get his phone number. He sighed to himself as he put his phone away in his back pocket and stood.

Roman stretched and leaned to pop his back, then maneuvered around the unopened boxes of IKEA furniture his mother had insisted on buying for him. The bed was the only thing assembled, and therefore the only room he had used so far. There were several more boxes leaned up against the hallway walls, and some larger ones in the living room area that he passed as he walked through the empty space and into the kitchen.

Roman stopped himself, hand halfway to the fridge door handle. How exhausted are you, he asked himself, you know there’s nothing in the fridge, just order something.

And so Roman began the journey back to his room, google listing several nearby pizza places that delivered. 

“Hi, yeah, can I get a large half pepperoni half- um,” Roman opened the wrong door by accident as his speech slipped on the phone. “Sorry, scratch that. Can I get a medium sausage and Canadian bacon with stuffed crust? The address is, hold on-“ it was written down somewhere, didn’t his mom text it to him? No, that was a call, it was in his notes wasn’t it? Think, Roman, think think think, oh, right!

“Sorry, the address is 386 fourth street, apartment number 204. Mhm. No, no sides, thanks, that’s all. Alright, thank you ma’am.” 

And Roman opened the wrong door for the second time on his trek down the hallway. Really, he didn’t see why his mother picked out this apartment specifically. It was just so big, he didn’t own nearly enough things to fill all of the rooms. And he didn’t know how she got the impression that he would need two bathrooms, but she was paying the rent, so he couldn’t really complain.

Finally finding the right door and collapsing onto the only piece of actual furniture in his new apartment, Roman went back to scrolling on his phone as he waited for his food to arrive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Patton moves in, and Logan meets his roommates.
> 
> If you see a mistake that I didn’t find when I had Siri read this to me out loud, roast me in the comments.


	2. New Rooms pt/2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patton gets his room key, and Logan meets his roommates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I’m sorry this took so long, I have this system where I don’t post a chapter until the next one is halfway finished, and I procrastinated writing chapter three a LOT. Chapter three still isn’t done, but on the bright side chapters four and five are ready to go, so pretty soon you should see a double update.

“Dad, I’m tired.”

“You can have nap time soon, kiddo, we just gotta get our key first, ok?” Patton pulled him along by his hand as Thomas walked slightly behind his father. It was clear to Thomas that now was not the time to complain, especially through his dad uncharacteristically passing on the opportunity to say “Nice to meet you tired, I’m dad!”

“How can I help you?” The woman behind the desk asked, glancing at Thomas with a questioning look before focusing on Patton.

“I’m here to pick up a room key?” Thomas dropped his dads hand and sat in one of the plastic chairs against the wall.

“Name?”

“I’m Patton Sanders. Nice to meet you...” now that he was closer, he glanced down to her name tag. “...Delilah.”

“Pleasure.” She clacked away on her keys for a moment before asking, “How’s that spelled?”

“Oh, P-A-T-T-O-N, S-A-N-D-E-R-S.”

She resumed her typing.

“Sorry honey, no luck. You sure you’re in the right place?”

“The right place?” Patton wondered what that could even mean, was there another key pick up area? Maybe he needed to go to a different place because he was in a special room, or maybe there was a different office area for students on financial help plans?

“Yeah, are you a returning student, or a freshman?”

“I’m a returning freshman,” he explained, and the way her eyes darted over to Thomas before giving him a sympathetic expression showed that she knew what he meant.

“You’ll be down the hall, honey. They changed things up the past few years, so make sure you still go to freshman orientation, even if you went before.” Patton nodded, that was good advice. He had assumed things would be similar enough that the freshman orientation would be the same as it was three years ago.

“Thank you, Delilah!” He called as he slipped his hand into Thomas’ and left the room. Sure enough, down the hall was another room labeled “key pickup” with a piece of printer paper taped to the door, the words written in pen.

“Hi, I’m Patton Sanders here to pick up a key.”

“Name?” The man asked, not looking up from his screen at all.

His name? But he just said- 

“Patton Sanders, spelled P-A-T-T-O-“

“Here you go,” the man interrupted, shoving a key and ID card into Patton’s hands. Patton would have checked the mans name tag, but he wasn’t wearing one. 

“Room 710, there are maps in the foyer if you can’t find the freshman dorms. And, uh,” he bounced the tiny paper bag holding some keys in his hand, and they made a jangling sound. “There are four keys, but only two actually go to people in your dorm, so you can take these two if you want, kids always make copies anyway.” He handed Patton the other two keys, not really making eye contact before sitting back down. 

Before Patton could respond, the door opened to reveal a man wearing an excessive amount of eyeshadow under his eyes. Patton’s first thought was that this kid needed to get more sleep, before he realized that it was makeup, not bags under his eyes. 

“Weren’t you in here last week?” The man at the desk asked the newcomer, who did not look like a happy camper.

“Yeah, but my ID’s messed up.”

“Your ID?” The unnamed employee raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, my ID. My name’s spelled wrong.”

“Dad, I wanna sleep now, I’m tired.” Thomas piped up, distracting all three men, and Patton remembered that he was done here. 

“Okay, c’mon kiddo, nap time.” He led Thomas by the hand out of the office and into the foyer, because he really didn’t know where the freshman dorms were.

\- - - - - - - - - 

“YOOO, ETHAAAANNN!” An unfamiliar voice called out as soon as Logan unlocked the door. Well, that was one new roommate, yelling for Ethan, who was presumably another new roommate. 

“ETHAN! ETHAN CHECK IT OUT, GET IN HERE!” Yelled out another unfamiliar voice. Stepping into the dorm and leaning his suitcase against the wall, he rounded the corner to see a man standing on his head in the kitchenette while another man was crouched over looking at him from on top of the refrigerator.

“Ethan, Ethan oh my god get up here, Alex is-“

“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?” The man who was, Logan assumed, Alex screamed, and the man on top of the refrigerator was laughing so hard that he fell off of the refrigerator.

Before Logan could even comprehend what was happening in front of him, the front door that he had closed and locked upon entry swung open.

“WHO DIED? Oh shit, Lee?” The newcomer rushed past Logan, towards Lee, who was still laughing from where he had collapsed onto the floor. And at that moment, Alex fell from his headstand and landed directly on top of Lee. 

Logan wanted to demand an explanation for their shenanigans, including a detailed list of all the reasons Lee thought it was a good idea to climb on top of the refrigerator in the first place, get both men to a hospital to check for any injuries their buffoonery might have inflicted, and lecture them all about proper safety procedures when attempting to stand on one’s hands, or... head. They should have at least placed down a gymnasts mat.

“Um.” Was all that he managed to say. 

The third man pulled a tiny flashlight out of nowhere and shined it in Lee’s eyes, moving it left to right and studying his pupils, all the while Alex was still lying on top of Lee on the floor. 

“You’re good to go, get off your ass.” He tucked the tiny flashlight away into his front pocket and patted Lee on the shoulder.

“You heard the man, get off my ass,” Lee grumbled to Alex, and Alex laughed as he slapped the aforementioned behind.

“Gayyyy!” Lee said as he shoved Alex over onto the floor and stood up, stumbling. And that was when they noticed Logan.

“Oh, hey. You’re new.” The unnamed third man commented, which threw the still floorbound Alex into another shouting episode.

“YEAH, WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?” He cried, which got him a kick in the side from Lee. Logan composed himself and elected to ignore his first impressions of them in order to leave a good one of himself.

“I’m Logan Berry, I was told that this was my dorm.”

“Oh, lit. I’m Ethan,” the significantly less impulsive and reckless man introduced himself. 

“Bro wait, what about Jo?” Alex had apparently elected not to get back on his feet.

“I told you man, the school’s a bunch of dickheads, he’s probably in the East Commons.”

“So, uh, this is Lee and Alex, we’re you’re new roommates.” Three new roommates. Four keys. Three of them and one Logan, which meant no Roman. What?

“I see.” This was awkward. What was he meant to do with his hands? Logan absently wandered back to the open doorway and grabbed hold of his suitcase, commenting “I’m going to put away my things,” as he walked away from the group. 

In the first of the two bedrooms, both beds were taken and covered in “unpacked” clothing, most likely Alex and Lee’s room, which left Ethan and Logan sharing the second room. The mattress was stiff and unyielding when Logan sat on it.

Roman wasn’t his roommate. Logan had requested Roman to be his roommate, Romans form should have said “list any students you would prefer to share a dorm with”, and Roman hadn’t put down Logan’s name. He either left it blank, or he asked for someone else. Perhaps he wrote “anyone but Logan Berry” across all three blanks.

Maybe Roman dropped out. No, he wouldn’t do that, Roman was very passionate in his pursuing of the arts. He was always going on about how he wanted to be accepted into the theatre program. Maybe he hadn’t been. Maybe Roman didn’t get into the theatre program, so he transferred to a school that would let him in. Maybe Roman wasn’t coming back at all. Maybe Roman had died, how would Logan know? He didn’t give you his number, you didn’t ask, good job Logan, the one person who actually puts up with you-

This was not logical thinking. Roman was not dead, the school board would be idiots not to grant Roman every leading role they had in their supply, and Roman would never give up on his education, or his dream. Which left only one option: Roman didn’t want to be around him anymore.

More shouting came from behind the bedroom door. Alex was attempting another head stand.

There were still three days until his first class. That gave him a day to organize his side of the room, a day to familiarize himself with where his classes were, and a day to review the textbooks he’d read over the summer. 

Or, that gave him a day to request a dorm change, a day to walk around to his classes once and skim his textbooks, and a day to move into a different dorm and laugh about the mistake with Roman.

Hopefully the latter.


	3. Saturday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil’s lunch break at work, and Patton and Thomas in the dorms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double upload :) I’m actually on my lunch break at work (at Walmart, ha. Planned that out before I got the job tho, wish me luck!)  
Chapters through six are in progress, plenty after that have been planned.  
Please don’t have me for being busy :)

The school cafeteria didn’t open until Monday, so Virgil was stuck eating an uncrustable he bought at work the week before, when he first arrived. Grape jelly was okay, he would’ve liked to get a pizza instead he didn’t have an oven to cook one in, and he had to get his stuff from Walmart. His employee discount was the only reason he could afford to eat in the first place, and uncrustables could always thaw in his bag or he could heat them up in the microwave he plugged up in his room.

“Hey, Virgil?” His rare moments of peace are interrupted by a girl sliding into the seat next to him as he charged his phone and ate his pathetic soggy sandwich. He didn’t hate uncrustables, it was fine. It was fine. 

Looking up from his lunch, he did recognize her. Which was good, because that meant she was one of three coworkers he’d actually been introduced to.

“How are you doing?”

“Fine.” He gestured vaguely with his sandwich. “I’m on lunch, so.” She nodded in response.

“Good, that’s good. Hey, can you cover for me tomorrow?” 

“Alondra,” Virgil sighed, but she cut him off as she continued.

“I know! It’s short notice, I’m sorry, but I’ve asked everyone else who doesn’t have a shift that day already.”

“Alondra, I’m sorry. I’ve got orientation tomorrow, and I’ve gotta be there.” He really felt bad about saying no to her, she was nice enough. He didn’t really know her that well, having only been there for two weeks, but when his bus broke down and he couldn’t make it to his first day of work, he’d sent out a frantic email and Alondra had offered to swap shifts with him.

“I know, that’s where I’ve got to be. I’m in charge of group 3, you know I can’t let down all the freshmen with last names H through K!” 

“There’s no one free that day? Really?” Virgil also really needed to be at freshman orientation, being a freshman himself, but Alondra did have a lot more to lose for missing the meeting. What kind of impression would it give the school if one of their RAs couldn’t even show up for orientation? 

But then again, what was the worst that could happen to Virgil? He could accidentally leave his bike in the wrong rack and it would get stolen, he might not learn how to punch in his lunch number and not be able to eat, he could miss the tour of campus and not know how to get to any of his classes, he might not know where the bathrooms were, he might not know how to access his grades on line, he-

“Please? I really need this, man.” He could lose the only potential friend he had because she would hate him because she would lose her status as RA or lose her job and he’d never see her again or he would and she would hate him and-

“Okay.” 

And she was hugging him. Physical contact, with no warning, um. Fun, right?

“Thank you! You’re the best, I’ll make it up to you.” 

“It’s... fine,” he mumbled, relieved when she released him. Checking his phone, his lunch break was almost over. He had three minutes to shove the rest of his stupid grape jelly and peanut butter cold-pocket abomination down his throat before clocking back in. Luckily, Alondra had wandered off to wherever she was supposed to be, and he could enjoy his delicious soggy lunch in peace.

At least his phone was fully charged.

\- - - - - - - - 

Patton was busy. 

He would be in class during the day, study in the afternoons, and sleep at night. Mornings and weekends would be his free time during the semester, and he planned to spend those with his son.

Thomas would be in school whole Patton was in class, but the elementary school didn’t start class for another two weeks. And Patton was busy.

He’d printed out several fliers, not too many, just ten or so, asking for a babysitter.

Thomas was old enough to be left alone for a short period of time, but not the entire week. Patton knew that it was unlikely a student willing to babysit would be able to watch Thomas during class hours, but maybe he could get multiple sitters who each had one of the hours off, or something along those lines. 

The flier was simple, large printed letters read “BABYSITTER WANTED” at the top, with a brief description and his contact information listed below.

“I’m looking for a babysitter,” he’d typed quickly into a school computer that morning, “My son is in school when I’m in class, but I need someone to watch him during the day until school starts for him in three weeks.”

The paper was white and bland and boring, except for the word art he’d used for the title. Patton really liked the color blue.

They were posted around every common area he knew. The cafeteria, the library, the dorms, and the McDonalds on campus. Hopefully a couple of people would see it, at least one babysitter.

Patton knew it was unlikely. But he had to keep his hopes up.

“Can we go to the playground?” Thomas asked, bouncing from foot to foot, a smile on his face. “I wanna try the monkey bars again.” Patton gave a returning smile to his son, phone clutched tight in his hands.

“Of course we can, kiddo! Give your old dad a minute though, we can head out in no time.” Class started in two days, he didn’t have much time.

“Can we invite Tyler?” The seven year old was nearly vibrating with excitement now.

“Is that why you’re so hyped up? I’ll call his pop and see what I can do, why don’t you go get your shoes?” Patton unlocked his phone and opened his contact list. What if he got a call while he was on the phone with Tyler’s father? Thomas nodded frantically and rushed off to get his velcro shoes.

Patton paced the steps between his bed and the folding table pressed against his and his roommates shared wall, the phone held to his ear, wide smile still plastered on.

“Hi! Hey Ryan, I was just about to head down to the park with Thomas, and he was wondering if Tyler wanted to join us. No, yeah, the rest of the little tykes are more than welcome to tag along. Okay, that’s great, we were thinking about fifteen minutes? Mhm, see you there.”

Patton hung up the phone and stared at the blank walls in front of him. He wanted this, he really, really wanted this. Why was he doubting himself so much?

The only sound breaking the echoing silence in his head was the thud of tiny feet in sneakers running down the hallway. Thomas three the door open.

“Where were your shoes?” Patton was disappointed in himself, he’d seen Thomas run off into the bathroom, but had no idea how he’d gotten outside. 

“By the stairs. Let’s go, let’s go!” He pulled his dads hand and dragged Patton out the still open door, trying to run but Patton’s weight holding him back.

“Okay, okay. Race you to the bus!” Patton suddenly broke out sprinting as soon as the door was shut and locked, Thomas screeching out in indignation.

“No fair, no fair!” He cried as he hurried down the halls, “You’re a cheater!” Patton only answered with a half genuine cackle as he screeched to a halt and skipped several stairs.


	4. Saturday Night/Sunday Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman takes a walk around campus and makes a phone call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part two of double upload!   
Funny how this is my less popular ongoing fic but this is the one I’m working on :/  
Maybe leave a comment if that should change   
—-no don’t actually please don’t look at anything else I’ve written I hate everything, nothings completed except for one work

The theater was... the theater, just like it was last year. It was big and old, but somehow small and new at the same time. A great timeless mansion filled to the brim with modern technologies and practices; one of the two places that really felt like home to him here.

Roman had gone to sign up for the stage crew. He would be auditioning as well when the time came, or course, but but until then he still wanted to be a part of the production process. He’d expected the space to be just as he had left it, full of people and joy, but it was nothing more than a dark empty cavern with a sign up sheet taped to the far wall.

He’d gone late, hoping to adjust his brain to what would be his new class schedule. Unlike the year before, most of Roman’s classes were in the late afternoon, and rehearsals tended to be scheduled every weekend, so he hoped to stay up late for those and sleep in. That way, he wouldn’t be so dead on his feet the whole semester.

The campus was empty, so there was no one around to question why he was wandering the campus so late at night. Roman was, admittedly, a little down in the dumps. He had, perhaps, built the theatre up on a pedestal in his mind as the one place he truly belonged. Well, one of the few places.

Looking up, he realized that his feet had carried him to the freshman dorms building on autopilot. The one other place he’d called home freshman year.

“I can’t go in there, I should get going soon,” he reasoned with himself. “I parked on the other side of campus, and it’s already so dark out.”

Regardless, Roman found his hand twisting the doorknob and himself moving inside. The lights were out, of course, but there were still several glow sticks strewn around from orientation that he used to light his way.

He wouldn’t go upstairs; he didn’t know any freshman to visits and his old room would have new tenants that he didn’t want to disturb. He did walk around the lobby for several minutes, though, sitting in uncomfortable chairs he’d never say in before and pretending to reminisce.

Oh, who was he kidding, he didn’t belong here anymore. He stood sharply, suddenly enough that a paper taped to the wall came loose and he nearly trampled it by accident. Roman walked past it before changing his mind with a sigh. Someone had hung that up, he should leave it as it had been.

“Babysitter Wanted,” he read aloud, scanning the page over. Some freshman was looking for someone to watch their small kid during the day until elementary school started in a few weeks. No name was given, but at the bottom both a dorm address and phone number were listed.

Roman had been a babysitter once.

Roman had had a relatively small immediate family - it subsisting of one himself, his parents, and his brother - but his neighbors were distantly related to him, and they had a very large family. The two Price families were close knit, even though they weren’t really sure how exactly they were related, they were more like one even bigger family. Roman was the babysitter, because Remus wasn’t allowed to be, so that was what he continued to do in high school, even though he never needed a job or the money.

He was glad to have such supportive and accepting parents, especially ones who were insistent on financing his performing arts degree. But he was just a little... bored. The one thing he’d really had all for himself was his place in the dorms with Logan, a life he was beginning to make for himself, and now he had none of that. He just wanted... to work for something all himself.

This was a bad idea, a really, really bad idea. Roman needed to focus on his schoolwork, and soon on the play too, but...

He got out his phone and took a picture of the flyer before sticking the tape back on the wall, the flash from his camera blinding him momentarily. It might be nice, to have a job.

\- - - - - - - - 

Hopefully 10 AM was an acceptable time to call someone, because that was what Roman was doing. After the phone rang several times, though, he began to doubt himself. He had only just woken up, so maybe try parent was still sleeping?

Just as he was talking himself into hanging up and calling back later, the phone picked up. He held the phone hurriedly to his ear.

Roman was met with silence.

“Hello?” Roman asked, wondering if maybe the call hadn’t even gone through.

“Hi,” greeted a young voice through the phone. Roman quickly composed himself and started again.

“Hi! I’m calling about the ad you posted about a babysitter?”

“That was my dad,” the kid told him, and then went quiet again. It did make more sense that this was the child, even though the voice sounded a bit older than Roman was expecting for the child of a freshman.

“Can I talk to your dad, then?”

“He’s in the shower.” Neither said anything for a moment, than the kid continued, “Bye,” and hung up.

Roman stared at his phone screen for a moment, lost in thought. Okay, so maybe he would call later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is appreciated :)


	5. Freshman Dorms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil stops living at work and finally meets his roommates

5  
Someone had been in his room.

It wasn’t hard to tell, if you were paying attention. The microwave door was shut all the way, it hadn’t been when he’d left for work that morning. His bag was zipped up and slouched over leaning against the wall instead of lying flat on the floor. His suitcase was untouched as ever, at least that he could tell, but his phone charger was just plain missing.

Why someone would break into a student dorm didn’t cross Virgil’s mind once as he listed off all of the things that might be missing. He didn’t even own anything worth any actual money, there was nothing worth taking. Just his bike and the microwave. Maybe they wanted the keys to his bike lock, or a tv or something, but he didn’t have one. His laptop was still in his bag, but the bag had been moved. Maybe they used his computer for something illegal and the police would trace it back to Virgil and he’d go to jail for something illegal like kidnapping or murder or tax fraud and he’d have to drop out of school before the year even started and he’d never get a job because he’d be a felon and he wouldn’t be allowed to vote and-

Something moved in the bathroom.

Someone was still in his room.

Virgil didn’t have a weapon or anything, what if the intruder did have a knife or a gun and what if he was robbing Virgil, right now. What if he didn’t find anything good enough to steal, so he’s making off with the shampoo and towels instead. Virgil grabbed his keys and curled his hand into a fist, sliding a key between each of his fingers. His bike lock key, his work key, his room key- his room key. He was locked in with a potential murderer in his apartment with his keys in his hand, and he didn’t even know how to punch.

Maybe it wasn’t too late, maybe he could grab his bag and run before the intruder realized he was home. He could get in his bike and hide inside the library or something, anywhere but his dorm. Yes, that’s good, go Virgil, with the good ideas.

But then the door opened.

And Virgil froze.

“Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit” ran like a mantra through his head, and he braved himself as best he could. “So this is how I die,” he thought, “at least I’m not old.”

A kid walked out of the bathroom. Like, a child, a small child. He stared at Virgil, standing frozen and still braced to through the most mediocre lunch he could hope for, and then went and sat on the empty bed. Virgil watched in a jock as the kid pulled out Virgil’s charging cord and plugged up a cell phone. Okay, okayokayokay, that’s fine. 

“Uh... hello?” Hesitantly, Virgil spoke, his voice cracking awkwardly from the stress.

No verbal response was given, but the kid did look up and smile at him, a toothless grin. Okay. Okay, this is fine. 

“What, uh.” He stammered and cleared his throat. “What are you doing here?” Virgil wanted to scream, he wanted shriek and yell but he can’t, it’s just a kid. He gestured with the phone in his hands. “Okay, okay. Uh, why in here?”

“Dad’s asleep.” What?

“What?” Once again, the kid vaguely gestured, this time towards the bathroom door. The shared bathroom that led to the other bedroom in his dorm.

Was he seriously living out some kind of twisted Goldilocks scenario? Some dude breaks into his room to nap in one of three empty beds his roommates were supposed to get after checking in?

“Thomas?” Oh no. Oh shit. Goldilocks-dad-guy woke up. “Thomas?!” And he was looking for his son, oh no oh no no no no nononono-

“In here!” The kid - Thomas, apparently - called back.

The other door in the bathroom opened and- Virgil instinctively threw the door on his side shut.

Seconds later it was opened again by the dad-guy, who did in fact have curly golden hair. Well, more of a golden bronze sort of thing, and his hair was short, so at most it was wavy, but still. And unlike his son, he had really, really blue eyes. Like, it was weird. Virgil actually froze in place for a minute before he commenced panicking, because that was not possibly a natural eye color. 

“Oh! Hey there, kiddo,” the man greeted him. “You must be our new roommate.” Oh. That made sense. A lot more sense than a real life Goldilocks and the three bears situation, Goldilocks and the three roommates. Wait.

“Our?” More people? He was barely equipped to handle his limit of social interaction with one person at a time, he couldn’t take more than that.

“Well, yeah. I see you’ve met Thomas, hope he wasn’t causing you too much trouble.”

Right, Thomas. When Virgil turned around to face the kid, he found out that apparently there were people in existence who liked grape jelly uncrustables. His roommate also seemed to realize that his son was chewing on something, because the friendly smile wavered on his face.

“Thomas, where’d you get that?”

Thomas did look up from his phone this time to meet his dads eyes, and point to the tiny closet in Virgil’s room that didn’t actually have any clothes in it, just an ice chest with uncrustables and with no ice.

“It’s fine, he can have it,” Virgil rushed out, frankly a little humiliated that he’d slammed the door in this guy’s face. What if he hated him now? Good job, five minutes into having a roommate and you’ve already fucked it up, round of applause for Virgil Sunners, everybody. 

“Oh,” the man looked surprised, like he didn’t expect that. See! Look, he things you’re a jerk. “Thank you- uh,” he trailed off.

The two stood in silence for a moment, while Thomas continued chewing and tapping his screen in the background.

“My name is Virgil!” He exclaimed once he realized that was probably his cue to introduce himself. His roommate smiled.

“Well, thank you, Virgil! That’s very kind of you,” the man said. Ha, “the man” as if he could be much older than Virgil. But he couldn’t think of him as “the kid” since that was Thomas in his head... oh no, what was his name? Was this the part where he was supposed to ask? Was it too late, should he even still say anything? Maybe he’d already introduced himself and Virgil hadn’t noticed, or he forgot? He probably forgot, and now Virgil was a rude jerk who slammed doors in his roommates face and didn’t remember his name.

“Dad, can I watch tv?” Thomas interrupted, though he wasn’t so much breaking up the conversation as breaking up the silence. And breaking Virgil’s thoughts out of their downward spiral.

“I’m your bed you can, sure. Now, let’s say goodbye to Virgil and go back to our room, ‘kay?” Thomas’s father took the phone to enter a password when Thomas walked by, waving at Virgil before disappearing through the conjoined bathroom. His dad smiled widely at Virgil and followed, shutting both doors on his way.

**Author's Note:**

> Updates are irregular, I write when I get inspiration.
> 
> I’m a student and I work, so yes I am busy, please don’t assume I’m lazy because I don’t have a regular upload schedule.
> 
> Commissions are currently closed until I get my life together. :)


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